HOPE

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One last talk with my Dad!

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Pondering the value of ‘last words’ in my life, I have considered often my last face-to-face conversation with Dad over Memorial Day weekend of 2022. I shared this memory on August 6th, 2022 at his memorial service.

On July 23rd, 2022, my Daddy went 'HOME".

Since our daughter, Leisha, 'ran on home' almost almost 16 years ago, I've been very aware that this earthly home is only temporary. 

Dad and I talked about that in May when I saw him last. He spoke of what it would be like to see Leisha - after Jesus of course! How he would give her a big hug and tell her that her momma loves her.

He admitted it was hard to…

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Seeing GREEN HOPE in a Brown World

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The holiday season can be so hard, but especially if you have lost - or feel like you are losing someone you love. Early this season, I was invited to share with a hospice group in Texas ways we can SEE GREEN HOPE this brown holiday. Take a listen.

How is HOPE showing up for you this week? I would love to hear what HOPE looks like for you?

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I hear Leisha

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Thirty plus years ago, when we were trying to figure out what to name our 3rd daughter, I recalled a musical written by Michael W. Smith and Andy Stanley called The Big Picture: A Youth Musical about God's Providence.

It is the story of a group of young people who are dealing with two teens from their group being in a tragic car accident. The boy was in the hospital. The girl had been killed. Her name was Leesha. (You can find more about this in my book Lovely Traces of Hope ) There was a song in the musical called "I hear Leesha".

We felt like the world needed another Leesha who was sold out for the Lord and making a difference in her world. So we chose that name, and changed the spelling to LEIsha.

I told the Lord, "I never want to use this song at my teen age daughter's funeral".

But we did!

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(Day 7) When HOPE is Family and Flowers - and Vulnerable

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Day 7 30 Days of Green Hope

C.S. Lewis writes 'to love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will b wrung and possibly broken..."

Oh that can be so very hard to live out. But I have been reminded today that I would rather live in the messy, beautiful, full of all the feels relationships in my life, than not to have known the deep love that can result.

How do Family and Flowers teach me about that today? Well, you will have to listen to find out.

What / or who is challenging you in the love dept. today? What choice will you make - to be 'safe and probably motionless and airless and 'unbroken' - or to risk the possibility of being broken and vulnerable? Neither way is easy. But one is LOVE!

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(Day 6) When the sounds Around Give Hope

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Day 6 30 Days of Green Hope Series

I'm sitting out on the front porch of my parents home. Sneaking in my recording as I listen to my mom play the piano. My heart is often touched deeply by the way my mom plays. It is always so much more than just "polka dots" (notes) from a page. She communicates words and heart through her music. And I love it when my dad joins in by humming or singing the bass along with her. What a rich legacy these two special humans have left in my heart - and in the lives of my siblings and this community. Today this is my 'GREEN HOPE".

What are you hearing today?

Momma’s hands

Momma’s hands

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(Day 5) When 10 minutes Makes the Connection

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Day 5 30 Days of Green Hope

Ten minutes in person- royal connection!

Ten minutes in person- royal connection!

Every once in a while everything works out just right for a special connection. Driving from Ohio to Texas, we drove right by the office of the Woodward Oklahoma News office where one of my mastermind girlfriends work. Staff writer Dawnita Fogelman.

I joined this mastermind group of entreprenuerial women to help get support and encouragment as I grow GREEN HOPE COACHING. But due to the restrictions of the last couple of years, I have never met any of the beautiful women in person- only over zoom!

But today I got to give a real hug to one of the QUEENS - Dawnita. We only had 10 minutes together but it was so good to see her in person for the first time.

This was truly a life giving, green hope moment. Can't wait till the group can all join in-person together.

So who do you need to spend some face to face time with?

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(Day 3) When HOPE is a SOMEONE!

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Listen to the DAY 3 Video to hear how God used some SOMEONEs to show HOPE to me today. Then read below about a SOMEONE I’d like to introduce you to at an event August 28th.

I’d love to hear your comments below about how HOPE shows up for you today

When Ren and I got married, SOMEONE gave me a book called Creative Counterpart : Becoming the Woman, Wife, and Mother You Have Longed To Be. (Hmmm? I should probably go back and read that book again)

Anyway, the author was SOMEONE by the name of Linda Dillow and her writing connected deeply with me. So as her other books came out, I was quick to pick them up and share them with others.

Over the years, I had opportunities to meet Linda, then sit and chat with her after a speaking event, then correspond via email in a mentoring relationship. Our family even got to housesit for Linda and her husband, Jody while they were traveling for a season. Even though we only had a brief time with them directly, living in their home taught me much about this SOMEONE that I knew God had brought into my life for a reason.

Kathy and Linda at Kiev conference 2002

Kathy and Linda at Kiev conference 2002

In the fall of 2002, I was invited to lead a worship team from our Ohio church for a women’s conference in Kiev, Ukraine. Little did I know, the speaker for the event was SOMEONE named Linda Dillow. She was in the middle of writing her book “Satisfy My Thirsty Soul”. Our time together in preparations for the retreat turned out to be life-changing for me as a woman and a worshiper. I was and am eternally grateful for the role she has played in my life.

Linda and Kathy at Surprised by the Healer Conference 2015. She’s holding the manuscript of my book.

Linda and Kathy at Surprised by the Healer Conference 2015.
She’s holding the manuscript of my book.

It was no surprise when I was looking for SOMEONE to write the foreward for my book Lovely Traces of Hope, that Linda would be my first choice. (You can read what she wrote here.) As you read the pages of my book, there are many times when Linda’s words to me are being channeled to you- either from her books, her emails, our conversations. There are times when I give her credit. There are times when I didn’t even realize that Linda was the one that first introduced me to the thoughts or the scriptures. So here’s me saying ‘thank you’ publically once again for the amazing ways God has used this woman in my life.

The exciting thing for me is …that same SOMEONE, Linda Dillow is making another appearance. And we are inviting you to join us.

Linda and her daughter, Jessa Dillow Crisp will be speaking at the Community Bibile Church in Omaha, Nebraska

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on Saturday, AUGUST 28th.

The topic is HOPE!

Since not all of us can travel to Nebraska, the women of our church in Ottawa, Ohio and the GREEN HOPE COACHING community are co-sponsoring a live-streamed event locally for women in the area.

If you live nearby you can come too. If you live in Omaha- you can go there. OR you can even arrange to live stream the event to your own personal device.

You can find out more about all of that - and save your spot to join us -
by clicking here. <—

If you are reading this, you have to be amazed how God used SOMEONE

  • to buy me a book as a young bride

  • to write books that change lives

  • to plan the conferences

  • to invite the friends

  • to mentor women

  • to be a ‘bringer of HOPE’

Could you be that SOMEONE for SOMEONE?

Check out the details- Save your spot for the
FIND HOPE CONFERENCE
for women

www.ottawamissionarychurch.org/hope-a-conference-for-women